Sunday, April 20, 2014

Welcome to Johnstown, New York

Around the bend form the place of the old Karg Bro.'s leather and tanning factory, you'll find the Dwyer's ownership of half the block on Dove Street. On that half a block, you'll see Dunham's Spring Shop, Inc. It’s the family owned and operated automotive business that Sonny Dwyer purchased back in his 20s that has since made all of his kids millionaires— all of his children except the black sheep and his first born, Carol who never worked for the family business. She was also the first of his five children to die, followed by his only other surviving daughter, Sonya who died suddenly four months after Carol. With tragic irony, both of his daughters were found dead in their vehicles. This is the story of those losses and that family. In these videos you will see the Dwyer home, the family business and the location where Sonny found his daughter Carol’s body (represented by the white minivan). However, making this a family project has not gone as planned. None of the surviving Dwyer children were willing to talk about the tragedy of losing both Carol and Sonya. And only one of the three brothers agreed to an audio interview, in which he was not forthcoming about the life or death of his sisters. As the first born daughter’s daughter, I feel as if it is my duty and obligation to represent these two lives, yet without my family’s cooperation, this seems impossible. This weekend, I found myself at my knees, sobbing uncontrollably, at a loss yet again feeling helpless and insignificant against a challenge I thought I was prepared to face. Nobody wants to talk about my mother or my aunt— their life or death, it is too painful for the family. To me, the silence is more painful than losing them. It’s like they were never real at all. 

{still keep's saying "error uploading video", here's some pictures because I can't it work} 

2 comments:

  1. Did you try uploading the videos to Youtube and then posting the Youtube video to the blog? If this tactic doesn't work maybe you can just bring the videos into class one week?

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